We can't believe what those aliens have been up to. We had been extremely busy learning all different basketball techniques with Mr Thacker and then we came back to the classroom to discover that the aliens had not been keeping our school rules at all. Just look what they did to our classroom! We just couldn't believe it.

(Comes with a warning of some very loud and shocked children! Make sure your volume isn't too high)

22nd March 2018

Today we were lucky to have our very own dance lesson with Cerys. She came in to teach us a dance ready for our school disco next week. There were lots of dance moves to remember but we all tried really hard and we were soon able to do the whole routine. We can't wait to join in with the rest of the school next week.

This afternoon something rather strange had happened. Some aliens had decided to come and visit us and were hiding in our classroom. The only problem was that they hadn't just visited our classroom, they had hidden themselves around the school. Our alien hunt began pretty quickly as we began to search for them all. They were even cheeky enough to hide themselves in Mrs Mepsted's office!! We made tally marks every time we saw an alien and soon discovered all their hiding places. I do hope that they behave themselves whilst they are here....

21st March 2018

At forest school today we started to notice some changes that were happening. There were signs of new life on some of the plants. We looked around carefully to see what we could find to share with our friends.

16th March 2018

Today we had a special visitor coming to speak to us. It was Mark the firefighter from Kent Fire and Rescue Services. He spoke to us about how to stay safe in different situations, the number to call in an emergency and how to behave around matches.

He even taught us some rhymes to help us remember how to keep safe.

Mark was really kind and then let us borrow his firefighter outfit that he would wear when putting out fires. The Oak Trees were a little worried about trying it on so Mrs Styles and Mrs Dell tried it on first. We couldn't believe how heavy it was. We soon had some firefighters in the making.

15th March 2018

After the excitement of making our own solar system on Tuesday the interest with space continued. We had our very own astronauts visiting us today. I wonder where they are heading on their space mission?

The astronauts may have been ready, but they need a way to get to the International Space Station. Some engineers began working on making a rocket for them to begin their missions.

We even drew some of the things that we imagined we would find in space once we set off in our rockets. What do you think you would see in space?

13th March 2018

A box never stays looking like a box for long when the Oak Trees are around! Today when we arrived at school we found 2 huge boxes so we got to work. Some of us decided that we wanted to make some roads on one of the boxes, but it didn't stay at just roads for long. Someone wanted to draw Strood and knew that there needed to be an Asda, Morrisons and a Next. Then the magic began....before we knew it we had a drive-thru McDonalds, a volcano, a roundabout with grass on, a car park with its own parking attendant, an Esplanade with a park, a fire station, a prison, a police station, the North Pole and a boat dock. These were just a few of the things that were added to our very own city. Take a look to see what else you can find.

Whilst some children created Strood, some of us decided to make somewhere much further away. The Solar System was created and we spent time looking in books to see the different names and colours of the planets so we could make our own. We even had a look at constellations and had a go at drawing some ourselves. This interest continued to grow and during the afternoon some of us created our own rockets to blast off into space.

Everyday the Oak Trees continue to amaze us with their learning. Today they also impressed the year 6 teacher Mr Danielson with something he did't realise they could do. Mrs Dell was telling him all about the city and solar system that had been created and said about all the fantastic writing that the Oak Trees are doing. He was very impressed and didn't realise that the Oak Trees could write! We felt it was only fair to write him letters to tell him how amazing the Oak Trees are and to invite him down to join our class one day.

We look forward to your visit Mr Danielson!!

9th March 2018

The day that we have been waiting for has finally arrived. It's World Book Day!

We have been so excited about dressing up as our favourite book characters and have been talking about it with our friends for weeks.

Once we had spent a bit of time with out friends we made our way to the hall to take part in a parade in front of the rest of the school. We loved seeing everyone's costumes.

We were very lucky to have a visit from a children's illustrator. Leighton Noyes came and visited us and showed us some of his amazing illustrations and then drew Mrs Styles so we could see him draw. Can you guess the other teachers that he drew too?

We then drew pictures of ourselves in our costumes. Leighton was very impressed with the drawings we did.

We were excited to share the afternoon with our adults. They were able to come in and share a story with us and then we were able to visit all the different book covers that were on the doors around the school and take part in an A-Z author/title quiz. What a busy day we had!

27th February 2018

We were rather excited when we saw some snow showers throughout the day yesterday, but there was definitely a lot more snow when we all woke up this morning.

This meant that we had snow days for the rest of the week. It certainly didn't stop us wrapping up warm and getting outside to enjoy ourselves. Even Mrs Styles, Mrs Dell and Miss Turner made the most of the snow too!

Have a look to see what your friends got up to on their snow days.

Welcome back to Term 4

22nd February 2018

This week we read 'The Rainbow Fish' and discovered how he wasn't very good at sharing. As we read more of the story we were pleased to find out that he began to share his shiny scales which made him feel happier and helped him to make friends with the other fish.

We started to make our very own rainbow fish so we could create the ocean on our classroom door ready for World Book Day. We started to paint some paper plates with different colours to make the scales. Some of us visited the library so we could gather some non-fiction books about the ocean to discover some of the creatures we may find.

6th February 2018

It's Friendship and E-Safety week.

We had a chat about all the different technologies that we use at home and thought about how we can keep safe when using them. We read a story about 'Smartie the Penguin' and helped him to solve some of the problems he stumbled across when using his laptop and tablet. Take a look at the story to see what happens.

As it's Friendship week we are thinking about what it is to be a good friend and how our friends are important to us. We made friendship bracelets using repeating patterns to send to the Reception class at St Margaret's at Troy Town.

We also worked with Year 2 to practise our 'Friends Forever' song. We learnt the words and sign language actions to go with it. We loved learning the actions and were lucky enough to show it and teach it to the rest of the school during our celebration worship at the end of the week.

I don't think our morning could have got more much more exciting than getting the chance to play in the snow. We quickly went onto the field where we had the chance to run around, throw snowballs and catch the falling snowflakes.

31st January 2018

There is just no stopping the Oak Trees with their learning. Some of them are even trying to take Mrs Styles', Mrs Dell's and Miss Turner's job away! We have got some amazing phonic teachers in the class and they have been helping their friends to practice recognising and writing their sounds. Great work!

This afternoon some children decided that they wanted to create some large pictures with their friends. Some children decided to draw a school and an airport, the other group were drawing the beach.

30th January 2018

Today we took part is the RSPB garden bird watch. We needed to count and identify how many birds landed in our garden. This morning we made some bird cakes to using bird seed and lard to try and help encourage them to land.

During our bird watch we had to remember to try and be as quiet and still as possible to try not to scare any birds away. We also learnt how to make tally marks to help us keep track of all the birds we saw. We were brilliant at remembering how to only make one mark for each bird we saw.

29th January 2018

Today we read a story called 'The Mood Hoover'. It was about a miserable boy who invents a device that sucks up all of the fun and happiness from around him. When we talked about it we decided that we didn't like his invention as we didn't like how it made other people feel.

Then we had a plan....

We were going to become inventors and create our own machines that could do anything that our imagination let it. We began by drawing our designs and then used various pieces of recycling to bring our designs to life. There were some great inventions made and the children thought carefully about how to fix their pieces of recycling together as well as carefully using the correct tools.

26th January 2018

The circus theme certainly continued this morning once the children arrived. To make sure that the customers didn't go hungry some children started making candyfloss and popcorn to be enjoyed during the show, whilst others were writing the prices to put up in the shop.

Some children made their own circus to advertise that the circus was coming to visit. They placed them around the room for their friends to see.

Mr Thacker was certainly trying to challenge us today. He was going to try something that he had never done with another Reception class. He wanted us to have our very own hockey match. We were put into teams and we had to try and score against them. We had to remember how to hold the hockey sticks carefully and to keep them low. Mr Thacker also taught us how to be like jam on toast. We had to pretend that the hockey pitch was a piece of toast, we were the jam and we had to make sure that we were spread out to help is get the ball. Mr Thacker was very impressed at how well we played our hockey games. Well done Oak Trees!

25th January 2018

We had something a little bit different to paint on today. There was cling film wrapped round the table legs which meant we could see through it and see what our friends were painting.

Roll up, roll up...the circus is coming to town

Mabel was talking to us about clowns and how funny she thought they were. She was telling us that you see them at the circus and that they have big feet, red noses and flowers that squirt water. We thought that we could try and create our very own circus. We made the circus top and the children were keen to show off their circus skills and tricks to us and their friends.

23rd January 2018

We have been so busy today with our learning. Honami and Samuel began by exploring the tape measures and wanted to measure each other to see how tall they were and write it down.

This then sparked off an interest with a lot of us and we all wanted to see how long we were. There was lots of amazing mathematical language used and some fantastic problem solving going on along with a lot of excitement to see who was going to be the longest and shortest.

This led to the discussion of who could be the longest adult in the school. Lily got onto this and wrote and hand delivered a letter to Mr Sverha asking if the Oak Trees could measure him. It soon became apparent that anyone who entered the classroom would soon be asked to lay on the floor so that the measuring could commence. Even Mr Bassett, the Headteacher from St Marks school in Eccles, was measured!

22nd January 2018

Today some of us have been busy building our own boats and battle vehicles. We have spent a long time working together, talking about and listening to each others ideas. We used the compare bears as soldiers to help protect our vehicles.

It also seemed like we were ready for some adventures! We jumped aboard our train and started our journey. I wonder where we are going?

Choo Choo....All aboard the Pilgrim Express!

19th January 2018

Today in PE we have been practising our balancing skills on benches. We explored different ways of travelling across the benches by walking forwards and backwards. Mr Thacker then set us some challenges to balance cones on our heads whilst walking and to balance balls whilst our arms were outstretched. It became really tricky when the benches were turned over and we had to balance on a thin beam but it was all alright as we were there to help each other. Great teamwork Oak Trees!

Welcome back to Term 3

11th January 2018

What a great start to our term! We have been really keen to talk about our Christmas holidays and were excited to share this with our friends.

Some of us have also been exploring how we can create our own shapes using lolly sticks.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

20th December 2017

It's the last day of term and we are all rather excited about finishing school and getting ready to enjoy our Christmas holidays with our families. But before we can start the holidays, it's time to party! We had our Christmas lunch with the rest of the school and enjoyed pulling crackers with our friends. There was music playing and we all finished by dancing to some of our favourite Christmas songs.

19th December 2017

Today started off like any other day and then we had a rather big surprise. We had a visit from the one and only Princess Poppy and we just couldn't believe it!

13th December 2017

It's time for us to take part in our second Christmas show of the year.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer featuring the Oak Trees!

12th December 2017

It has been a busy time for us Oak Trees. We have been learning about the Christmas story and how Christmas is an important time for Christians. We also wrote our own Christmas list and posted it to Father Christmas in the North Pole. We hope that he replies to us soon.

We are also taking part in the whole school performance of 'Now that's what I call a Pilgrim Christmas.' After watching the Year 5 performance of 'Rockin' around the Christmas Tree' we just can't stop singing and dancing. We even did our own version.

5th December 2017

After spending time learning songs, practising lines and rehearsing our play it was finally time for us to perform 'Shine Star, Shine!' We were so excited to finally show all our adults who came to see it. We hope that you had a great time watching it.

1st December 2018

It's Friday so it can only mean one thing...PE with Mr Thacker.

Today we were learning how to play hockey. We were shown how to use the hockey sticks safely and must remember to keep them low when passing the ball. We worked in small groups to develop our passing skills and we soon got the hang of holding the stick correctly. Both Mrs Styles and Mr Thacker were really impressed with how sensible we were and how well we listened to the instructions.

28th November 2017

Today some of us were using the conkers in the classroom to try and solve some of our own number problems. Samuel was talking about big numbers and counted that there were 40 conkers. He even wrote 40 on the board to show his friends what a big number it was. Lily then discovered that she could use the conkers to make numbers and made her own number 5.

We have also had a busy couple of days building some amazing constructions using different resources. It has helped us to develop our listening and communication skills when working with our friends.

23rd November 2017

This week we have definitely been working our finger muscles hard! We've been manipulating the play dough, creating various different models and had the added challenge of beads and buttons to use. These small items were helping to develop our fine motor skills by us having to use a pinching action to pick them up.

As well as the play dough helping to develop our finger muscles, we have also been mark making and writing using different resources in the classroom.

22nd November 2017

Today at forest school we were given egg boxes to use. We could put things into them that we found interesting and wanted to share with our friends when we gathered back together at basecamp. There were lots of things to for us to find and we had great discussions about the shape, size and texture of the things we found.

As well as finding treasure, we were also using the tools in the digging area. We added water and soon discovered that it made a rather muddy puddle which was perfect for us to jump in. Obviously we had to test it out!

16th November 2017

Today we were really excited as we were going to share the afternoon with our adults for stay and play. We were able to have lunch together in the hall and we showed our adults how grown up we could be by asking for our lunches. Once we had finished eating we went back to the classroom where we were very keen to share our learning stories showing all the things that we have been busy doing. We loved spending the afternoon with you and showing you what we get up to in the Oak Trees.

14th November 2017

What a busy time we had a forest school today!

We began by creating a mud slide down the bank. It was a little bit slow and bumpy to begin with, but as we added water and soap flakes it soon became slippery and much faster! We had a great time at taking turns to see how fast we could slide to the bottom.

As well as playing on our mud slide, we were also busy using some of our tools, using paintbrushes to create mud art along with the chalk that was found in the ground to draw pictures.

10th November 2017

In PE today we were practising our ball skills. We had a ball each and were practising our throwing, catching and dribbling skills. We worked hard to make sure that we had control of the ball, especially when dribbling with it. We pretended that the ball was a dog and that we were taking it for a walk. We also had to experiment with ways of balancing the ball on different parts of our bodies.

Remembrance Day

10th November 2017

Today was a day where we came together with the rest of the school to remember those people who lost their lives in the war. Once Mrs Mepsted had spoken about Remembrance Day we started our 2 minute silence. After that we sang a song that we had learnt with the rest of the school.

We spoke about why people wear poppies and how we have a 2 minute silence for us to pay our respects.

17th November 2017

When we got to forest school we noticed some changes...the trees were bare and there were leaves everywhere! We decided to try and make a tower as tall as one of the Acorn children. We all worked together to collect as many leaves as possible to add onto the leaf pile. We used brooms and rakes to gather leaves, we filled buckets and even used tarpaulin to create a giant hammock for the leaves.

We managed to make our leaf pile as tall as the Acorns and then celebrated by falling backwards onto it. What brave Oak Trees we are!

November 2017

Welcome back to Term 2.

We have come straight back to school and have been busy using the play dough in our kitchen area to make lots of different foods. Cupcakes, pizzas and sweets have been some of our favourite things to make, we even had a masterclass in how to make pretzels by some of our friends. By rolling, squashing, patting and squeezing the play dough, it has been helping our finger muscles to get stronger.

As well as making things in the kitchen, we have also been enjoyed getting rather messy when playing in the gelli bath and cornflour gloop. We spent a long time talking to our friends about what we noticed happening, what it felt like and how it changed.

Our Welcome Service

31st October 2017

What an exciting start to the term...today is our Welcome Service. We went to the church to be welcomed into the Pilgrim School. We were really brave and sung "I jumped out of bed" and "Super Singers" in front of our families and the rest of the school.

20th October 2017

Today was a special end to our first term as Oak Trees. We met our Year 5 buddies for the first time and spent some of the afternoon reading books together and showing them our learning stories.

17th October 2017

At forest school today we were shown how to use the bug catchers and were reminded about how to look after the bugs that we may find.

We have to remember:

Only keep the bugs in the catchers for a short time.

Don't swing them around when there are bugs inside them

Always put the bugs back where you found them before putting the bug catchers away.

We also used the magnifying glasses to help us take a closer look at the bugs we found.

13 October 2017

It's Friday so it can only mean one thing....it's PE with Mr Thacker! Over the last few weeks we have been playing lots of games to develop our listening skills and to help us follow instructions. We have also been moving our bodies in different ways and making sure that we are travelling into a space rather than bumping into each other.

11th October 2017

Forest school was full of exploration today. We looked carefully at our surroundings and talked about the changes that we noticed happening around us.

Come and see some of the things that we discovered....

Harvest Festival

6th October 2017

Today we joined the rest of the school to celebrate our Harvest Festival. We walked up to St Matthew's Church and carried a piece of food that had been kindly donated. We sang songs about being thankful for all that we have and we thought about those who are less fortunate than us.

3rd October 2017

During forest school today we played a treasure hunt game. We had to stay at base camp and close our eyes whilst Mrs Styles and Mrs Dell went and hid toys in different places. There were 16 toys to find and we had to work together to try and get them all back to base camp.

28th September 2017

Today we had our Macmillan coffee morning. There were cakes of every shape, size, colour and flavour and we were very keen to try them. Jasper and Lily, our school council members, went and helped to sell cakes to the rest of the school in the hall at break time.

As you can see, the cakes went down a treat when it was time for us to have ours.

Forest, forest, forest school...

September 2017

We have had a great time at forest school. There have been lots of new rules for us to remember to help keep us all safe.

They are:

No picking

No licking

STOP! FUNGUS! Don't touch!

Don't talk to anyone through the fence

Hold long sticks like a tail

1,2,3 Where are you? Here we are!

During our first few sessions we have been exploring the forest school area and listening carefully to the instructions that we have been given.

The beginning of our journey as an Oak Tree...

September 2017

What an exciting start to the year it has been! We have spent our first few weeks of school getting to know each other, becoming familiar with the school routines and remembering our rules to help us all work together.It has been very exciting getting to explore all the different things we can do. The messier the better!

We have also enjoyed making friends with each other and learning how we can all play together by being kind and sharing.